The Tower Records Family

In 1960, long-time music buff Russ Solomon had a sound idea--he started selling records out of his father’s drugstore, located in the town of Sacramento, California. It didn’t take long for Mr. Solomon to make Tower Records a household name: from humble beginnings an American pioneer arose to promote emerging artists and established stars.The innovative history of Tower Records continued, when in 1967, while some recording artists were lamenting about leaving their "heart in San Francisco,” Russ was opening up shop at the corner of Bay and Columbus. The San Francisco store proved to be a hit with its “supermarket” style record merchandising, and paved the way to “tinsel town” for Tower Sunset, in 1969. By now Russ was setting his sites for new markets abroad.The seventies ushered in Tower’s expansion into the Japanese market; a clever example of creative opportunism involving the procurement of an organization already trading as Tower Records. Entering Japan without a franchise was bold, and it proved successful by allowing the Tower brand to integrate into a community with an unobtrusive presence. Now the idea that each Tower store was unique unto itself was not just limited to the Americas.In the eighties, Tower’s revenue streams were flowing with international commerce, and in 1986 Tower opened its doors to Piccadilly Circus in London-–a pearl in the oyster of Europe. In the years that followed, more international stores opened in England, Scotland, Taiwan, Mexico, Ireland, Israel, Singapore and Hong Kong.By 1995, Tower had created one of the first online retail music stores on AOL, and then returned a year later with the launch of TowerRecords.com. In 2000, the site was named “Best Music Commerce site” by Forrester Research. Furthermore, MTS-owned Tower operated as one of the largest specialty music retailers, with nearly 90 company-owned stores worldwide. MTS also owned WOW!--a joint venture with electronics retailer Good Guys--and maintained 61 franchise agreements in nine countries. In an effort to increase the scope of available music, Tower offered its listeners approximately 66,000 titles from undiscovered artists through a deal with CD Baby. Tower also became a Gold Honoree of the fifth annual BizRate.com Circle of Excellence Awards.Over the past four decades, Tower facilitated an eclectic environment for an array of unique and knowledgeable employees, and provided entertainment fans with unparalleled selection. As a result, each store continued to maintain its own character in the face of a largely homogenized corporate culture.